First-Year Seminar: Academic/Career/Personal Exploration Program

The First-Year Seminar (BAC 101/102) is a two-semester, 2-credit course designed for and required of first-year students. The fundamental goal of BAC 101/102 is to help students make their college experience more meaningful and successful, as well as to integrate students into the UT community. To accomplish this, the following learning and course objectives will be met:

I. College Transition: Students should be able to describe the culture of college, including knowing the difference between high school and college standards, identify and use higher education resources, identify higher education skills that transfer to the workplace and explain factors that affect degree completion.

II. Time Management: Students should be able to identify effective time management strategies, explain the advantages and disadvantages of various time management tools, apply their understanding of time management planning tools to situations and understand the importance of prioritizing activities.

III. Creating an Academic Plan: Students should be able to describe planning and its value, understand the goals of the Baccalaureate Experience at UT, gather information to build an academic plan, map courses for their academic plan on a term-by-term timeline, including how to adjust an academic plan, and be able to resolve academic planning issues.

IV. Critical Thinking: Students should be able to describe critical thinking, identify and develop skills of critical thinking, develop the ability to consider information from different viewpoints, set goals to improve their critical thinking skills and evaluate information using critical thinking skills, including the ability to analyze assumptions and bias information.

V. Majors/Careers and Resumes: Students should be able to identify interests and how they relate to coursework and potential careers, conduct research to determine the skills, experience and education needed for a career area, analyze transferable skills from post educational work and life experiences, evaluate what transferable skills relate to a specific job and build an effective resume for their chosen career path.